etapilist

Etapilist is a data construct used in workflow orchestration to track the progress of a multi-stage process and to convey the estimated time of arrival for each stage. The term blends the concept of an estimated time of arrival with a collection structure, reflecting how the data is organized for monitoring and planning.

Typically, an etapilist entry includes an identifier, a stage name, a current status, an estimated time to complete, start and end times if available, a list of dependencies, and optional metadata. The list is designed to support dynamic updates: as a stage progresses, its ETA can be recalculated and downstream stages adjusted. The etapilist can be consulted by dashboards, schedulers, or alerting components to anticipate bottlenecks and reallocate resources.

Use cases for etapilist appear in software build and deployment pipelines, data processing workflows, and logistics or manufacturing scenarios where multiple stages must be coordinated. It enables teams to visualize timing expectations, detect delays, and coordinate retries or resource shifts without requiring rigid, linear plans.

Implementation considerations include choosing a serializable format such as JSON or YAML, enabling external services to read or modify the list, and incorporating versioning to preserve historical progress. Performance and consistency are important in systems with frequent updates, and proper access controls help prevent unauthorized alterations.

Related topics include list data structures, workflow orchestration, pipeline scheduling, dependency graphs, and ETA concepts.